Passenger figures up for high-flier easyJet

Jun 5 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

BUDGET airline easyJet reported an increase in passengers for May – despite cancelling 1,600 flights due to the volcanic ash crisis.

More than 4.25m passengers travelled with the carrier last month, up from 3.9m in May, 2009. The firm said it achieved the 7.9% rise despite grounding flights and turning away some 215,000 travellers due to the ash cloud restrictions.

The airline’s load factor –measuring how many seats are occupied – also rose from 83.5% to 85.8%.

EasyJet released the figures as it revealed plans to use new technology to minimise future disruption from volcanic ash.

The carrier will be the first airline to trial a new “weather radar for ash” system.

Rival Ryanair flew 6.44m people in May.